PETA India Intervention Gives New Lease on Life to Over 60 Roosters Rescued from Illegal Cockfighting

Mumbai, 15th November 2022 (GNI): Through a recently issued order, the Judicial Magistrate of First Class, Khalapur in Raigad district, directed the rehabilitation of 64 roosters rescued by Khopoli police station. The Khopoli police station, acting on a tip off, had raided premises where roosters were being used for illegal cockfighting as well as betting and other prohibited activities. The police arrested persons involved in the criminal activities, seized prohibited items, and rescued 69 roosters. Five roosters succumbed to blade injuries suffered during cockfighting, but the remainder have been rehomed with the help of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) India.

PETA India worked with the sub divisional police officer (SDPO), Khalapur, to persuade the court to order the rehabilitation of the rescued roosters. The application filed by SDPO Khalapur included health assessment reports by a team of government veterinarians from the Maharashtra Department of Animal Husbandry who examined the seized roosters and found that many were suffering from malnourishment, wounds all over their bodies, and other health problems. Now the court has ordered the rehabilitation of the roosters at a reputed sanctuary through PETA India’s help, where they will receive veterinary care and live free.

“We commend the Khalapur Police led by Sub Divisional Police Officer Shri Sanjay Shukla for taking action and sending the message that cruelty to animals will not be tolerated,” says PETA India Manager of Cruelty Response Projects Meet Ashar. “The Supreme Court has made it clear that authorities are expected to stop cockfighting and all other staged fights with or between animals for depraved human entertainment. Such cruelty has no place in a civilised society.”

Roosters raised for fighting are often kept in cramped cages and tormented in practice fights. Their eyes may be gouged out, their wings and legs broken, their lungs punctured, or their spinal cord severed. One or both birds in a fight may die from the event, and both are often critically injured. Last year, a cockerel who had been fitted with a knife for an illegal cockfight accidentally killed his handler in Telangana.

It is a cognisable offence under The Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960, to incite any animal to fight and to organise such fights.

PETA India – whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment” – opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETAIndia.com or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.

The news release is available in Marathi here: https://www.petaindia.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Marathi_News_Release.pdf

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